The Department of Medicine at the University of Texas San Antonio has been granted $3.7 million to develop programs that specifically target members of the Hispanic community with bipolar disorder. The goal is to develop treatment protocols that are more effective because they are more culturally sensitive. Specifically, the program aims to increase the rate at which Hispanic patients adhere to treatment and to improve understanding of the disorder and treatment side effects in the community as a whole. The grant comes in part from the National Institutes of Health and the National Institute of Mental Health. More coverage of the story can be found on My San Antonio here.
Commentary
Programs like this one can be very effective. Ethnic communities have their own social reality, and unless programs find a way to address those communities directly, it is often difficult for people in ethnic communities to know about treatment options that are available, especially if language is a barrier. Much of this program is focused on providing psychoeducation, which is the process of teaching people about the nature and available treatments for a disorder. However, psychoeducation cannot happen in a vacuum. Instead, it must meet people where they are, and address concerns about an illness that might be especially prevalent or even unique to a community. This is an especially large grant, and even if it were to simply provide Spanish-language literature (though it plans to do far more than this), it would be a great boon for Hispanic people with bipolar disorder in terms of learning about their illness and finding appropriate treatment.
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